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2017 vol 9 issue 24 - December 19 2017

Page 1

FREE
FREE TO READ!
FREE TO WRITE!
Submit your story
online by Jan. 5
at wbvobserver.com
VOLUME 9 • ISSUE 24 | Community News Powered by the Citizens of Westlake and Bay Village | DECEMBER 19, 2017
More stories, photos
and events online at
/wbvobserver wbvobserver.com
The Observer – Dedicated to the ideal
that volunteers define a community.
» See GREENER page 2
Children
share their
favorite
holiday
traditions
See pages 6-7
A greener
you in 2018
by JENNIFER HARTZELL
I hope you are all enjoying this
time of year and spending time
with family and friends rather
than getting caught up in the frenzy
and stress this season can bring. For
this issue’s column I want to share
with you some simple New Year’s res-olution
ideas as we head into 2018.
• Bring your own. I’ve written
this here many times, and I can’t
emphasize enough how much
cutting single-use plastics out of
your life helps the health of the
planet. Bring your own coffee
mug, water bottle, and shopping
bags. These three items alone
account for so much trash and
waste that end up in our landfills
and waterways. Make it your reso-lution
to bring your own – soon it
will become a habit!
• Reduce energy use. Turn off
lights and turn the heat down
while you’re not home, and
unplug phone/tablet chargers
when not in use. Our energy
source still largely comes from
burning coal in Ohio. Using less
energy in your home has a direct
impact on carbon dioxide emis-sions
into the environment.
• Don’t idle your car for longer
than 10 seconds. That’s right,
10 seconds. It’s healthier for you,
for your car, and the environment
to shut it off if you are waiting
longer than 10 seconds. I know
that’s harder to do in the winter,
but please keep it in mind all year
and try to be cognizant that your
car should not be idling. If you
have kids, please make it a prior-ity
to not idle your car in front of
the school at drop-off/pick-up.
Keeping the air healthy where
children are present is especially
important.
THE GREEN REPORT
Second-graders perform as Arabian dancers in Bassett Elementary
School’s version of “The Nutcracker” ballet on Dec. 14. All 70
second-grade students were involved as cast members in the
annual production, staged in the school gym.
Bay coach Ron Rutt
is Cleveland Browns
HS Coach of the Year
by KAREN DERBY
Bay High School
Rockets head
football coach,
Ron Rutt, was honored on
Sunday, Dec. 11, during
the Cleveland Browns’
game as their 2017 High
School Coach of the Year.
The Browns also
surprised Rutt at school
the following day with a
gift of Xenith helmets for
the team worth $25,000.
The Rockets had already
been awarded $1,500 for
winning a Browns Game
of the Week, and $3,000
for Rutt being Coach of
the Year. As an added
treat for Rutt, the Browns
will send him to the Pro
Bowl in Orlando, Florida,
next month. Rutt will
represent the Browns as
Cleveland’s Don Shula
NFL High School Coach
of the Year nominee.
In addition, the
Cleveland Browns, Uni-versity
Hospitals, and
Xenith Helmets will pro-vide
all Rockets football
coaches with free, USA
Football “Heads Up”
training so that they have
additional education in
teaching the proper way
to tackle and hit to avoid
injury.
Since being named
the Rockets’ head coach
in 2014, Rutt has earned a
37-13 record (.740, includ-ing
postseason) and has
reached the playoffs each
year while developing a
program that finished a
combined 10-40 the pre-vious
four seasons.
» See RUTT page 2
‘Triple Threat’ discussion on heroin
to include Westlake Police panelist
The Cleveland Clinic
series “Heroin, Fen-tanyl
and Carfentanil:
The Triple Threat on Our
Doorstep” is coming to West-lake
Porter Public Library on
Thursday, Jan. 11, to bring
together residents, com-munity
partners and local
experts, including the West-lake
Police Department, in
an open conversation about
the opioid epidemic.
More than 4,000 people
in Ohio died from drug over-doses
in 2016. Although the
state reports that both the
prescribing of and uninten-tional
deaths from painkill-ers
is falling and heroin-related
deaths are leveling
off, powerful combinations
of drugs that include fentan-yl
and carfentanil, a fentan-yl-
related drug that emerged
in 2016, continue to claim
lives in urban, suburban and
rural communities.
“The opioid epidemic
has struck municipalities
like Westlake along with the
rest of the State. We are not
immune,” said Captain Jerry
Vogel, one of the panelists
for the discussion.
» See HEROIN page 2
Bay Village
library update
by DAVE SARTIN
How would you like to have
your name on a cozy fireplace
in a reading area in the new
Bay Village library? Or on a computer
innovation and design studio? A teen
activity space?
That may be possible under a
plan being developed by the Cuyahoga
County Public Library that allows indi-viduals
or companies to buy naming
rights to facilities in library branches.
The county library system has
proposed to build a new branch in
Cahoon Park roughly in the footprint
of the Bayway Cabin with a cost of
about $6 million.
Hallie Rich, library external rela-tions
director, and Bridget Hawes,
library foundation consultant, will
speak at a meeting of the Bay Village
Democrats on Monday, Jan. 8, at 7
p.m. in the community room of the
police station, 28000 Wolf Road.
» See BAY LIBRARY page 2
Dressed-up for “Nutcracker”
Thanks for a great year!
As 2017 comes to a close with our final issue of the year, we offer
sincere appreciation for the hundreds of volunteers who have
helped create, edit and distribute the community’s newspaper
over the last 12 months. We are also grateful to our civic-minded
advertisers, whose financial support makes each issue possible.
And of course, to the many thousands of readers who make the
Observer the most popular newspaper in our community.
Happy holidays, Westlake and Bay Village. See you in 2018!
PHOTO BY DENNY WENDELL

FREE
FREE TO READ!
FREE TO WRITE!
Submit your story
online by Jan. 5
at wbvobserver.com
VOLUME 9 • ISSUE 24 | Community News Powered by the Citizens of Westlake and Bay Village | DECEMBER 19, 2017
More stories, photos
and events online at
/wbvobserver wbvobserver.com
The Observer – Dedicated to the ideal
that volunteers define a community.
» See GREENER page 2
Children
share their
favorite
holiday
traditions
See pages 6-7
A greener
you in 2018
by JENNIFER HARTZELL
I hope you are all enjoying this
time of year and spending time
with family and friends rather
than getting caught up in the frenzy
and stress this season can bring. For
this issue’s column I want to share
with you some simple New Year’s res-olution
ideas as we head into 2018.
• Bring your own. I’ve written
this here many times, and I can’t
emphasize enough how much
cutting single-use plastics out of
your life helps the health of the
planet. Bring your own coffee
mug, water bottle, and shopping
bags. These three items alone
account for so much trash and
waste that end up in our landfills
and waterways. Make it your reso-lution
to bring your own – soon it
will become a habit!
• Reduce energy use. Turn off
lights and turn the heat down
while you’re not home, and
unplug phone/tablet chargers
when not in use. Our energy
source still largely comes from
burning coal in Ohio. Using less
energy in your home has a direct
impact on carbon dioxide emis-sions
into the environment.
• Don’t idle your car for longer
than 10 seconds. That’s right,
10 seconds. It’s healthier for you,
for your car, and the environment
to shut it off if you are waiting
longer than 10 seconds. I know
that’s harder to do in the winter,
but please keep it in mind all year
and try to be cognizant that your
car should not be idling. If you
have kids, please make it a prior-ity
to not idle your car in front of
the school at drop-off/pick-up.
Keeping the air healthy where
children are present is especially
important.
THE GREEN REPORT
Second-graders perform as Arabian dancers in Bassett Elementary
School’s version of “The Nutcracker” ballet on Dec. 14. All 70
second-grade students were involved as cast members in the
annual production, staged in the school gym.
Bay coach Ron Rutt
is Cleveland Browns
HS Coach of the Year
by KAREN DERBY
Bay High School
Rockets head
football coach,
Ron Rutt, was honored on
Sunday, Dec. 11, during
the Cleveland Browns’
game as their 2017 High
School Coach of the Year.
The Browns also
surprised Rutt at school
the following day with a
gift of Xenith helmets for
the team worth $25,000.
The Rockets had already
been awarded $1,500 for
winning a Browns Game
of the Week, and $3,000
for Rutt being Coach of
the Year. As an added
treat for Rutt, the Browns
will send him to the Pro
Bowl in Orlando, Florida,
next month. Rutt will
represent the Browns as
Cleveland’s Don Shula
NFL High School Coach
of the Year nominee.
In addition, the
Cleveland Browns, Uni-versity
Hospitals, and
Xenith Helmets will pro-vide
all Rockets football
coaches with free, USA
Football “Heads Up”
training so that they have
additional education in
teaching the proper way
to tackle and hit to avoid
injury.
Since being named
the Rockets’ head coach
in 2014, Rutt has earned a
37-13 record (.740, includ-ing
postseason) and has
reached the playoffs each
year while developing a
program that finished a
combined 10-40 the pre-vious
four seasons.
» See RUTT page 2
‘Triple Threat’ discussion on heroin
to include Westlake Police panelist
The Cleveland Clinic
series “Heroin, Fen-tanyl
and Carfentanil:
The Triple Threat on Our
Doorstep” is coming to West-lake
Porter Public Library on
Thursday, Jan. 11, to bring
together residents, com-munity
partners and local
experts, including the West-lake
Police Department, in
an open conversation about
the opioid epidemic.
More than 4,000 people
in Ohio died from drug over-doses
in 2016. Although the
state reports that both the
prescribing of and uninten-tional
deaths from painkill-ers
is falling and heroin-related
deaths are leveling
off, powerful combinations
of drugs that include fentan-yl
and carfentanil, a fentan-yl-
related drug that emerged
in 2016, continue to claim
lives in urban, suburban and
rural communities.
“The opioid epidemic
has struck municipalities
like Westlake along with the
rest of the State. We are not
immune,” said Captain Jerry
Vogel, one of the panelists
for the discussion.
» See HEROIN page 2
Bay Village
library update
by DAVE SARTIN
How would you like to have
your name on a cozy fireplace
in a reading area in the new
Bay Village library? Or on a computer
innovation and design studio? A teen
activity space?
That may be possible under a
plan being developed by the Cuyahoga
County Public Library that allows indi-viduals
or companies to buy naming
rights to facilities in library branches.
The county library system has
proposed to build a new branch in
Cahoon Park roughly in the footprint
of the Bayway Cabin with a cost of
about $6 million.
Hallie Rich, library external rela-tions
director, and Bridget Hawes,
library foundation consultant, will
speak at a meeting of the Bay Village
Democrats on Monday, Jan. 8, at 7
p.m. in the community room of the
police station, 28000 Wolf Road.
» See BAY LIBRARY page 2
Dressed-up for “Nutcracker”
Thanks for a great year!
As 2017 comes to a close with our final issue of the year, we offer
sincere appreciation for the hundreds of volunteers who have
helped create, edit and distribute the community’s newspaper
over the last 12 months. We are also grateful to our civic-minded
advertisers, whose financial support makes each issue possible.
And of course, to the many thousands of readers who make the
Observer the most popular newspaper in our community.
Happy holidays, Westlake and Bay Village. See you in 2018!
PHOTO BY DENNY WENDELL